


It's All Arranged

by Madam_Fandom



Series: Tumblr Prompts [12]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Arranged Wedding, H.I.A.T.U.Story March Prompt, Johnlock - Freeform, M/M, Mention of Mummy Holmes - Freeform, Mention of Mystrade, Mild Angst, Mycroft's Meddling, Tumblr Prompt, Wedding, Wedding Planning, mention of Greg Lestrade - Freeform, not very good, wedding vows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 07:49:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13876422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madam_Fandom/pseuds/Madam_Fandom
Summary: Mycroft has news, he's getting married to John Watson!





	It's All Arranged

"I’m getting married brother mine.”  
Sherlock had been casually plucking at his violin, but at Mycroft's words, he hit a sour note. “Excuse me?”  
Mycroft gave a tight-lipped smile at the apparent confusion on his little brother’s face. “Mummy feels as I am the eldest I should set an example for you. So, she is forcing me to get married.”  
“Forcing you? No one forces you to do anything you don’t want to.”  
Mycroft leaned forward on his umbrella, “Except Mummy. Besides, she has threatened to pull all her influence, and I know you have never cared to know, but she has quite the impressive resume, confidential of course. I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as far in my career if not for her, and her connects.”  
“Ahh, makes more sense now. You're doing this for work. So who’s the lucky man?”  
Mycroft frowned, “Man? What makes you think it’s a man?”  
Sherlock leaned forward watching as Mycroft also leaned forward in giddy anticipation of a battle of deductions. Smiling he simply replied, “Pssh, I see the way you watch Gavin Lestrade when you think no one else is looking. Is it him? He is newly single.” Sherlock saw the look of surprise pass over his brothers face.  
“Is he?”  
“So not Lestrade, you didn’t even know his divorce was final. So who is it?”  
“Well, Sherlock, you see, Mummy wanted to arrange everything. But every person she suggested I shot down. I don’t want to be married, for convenience or love. The person I marry has to be compatible with my lifestyle and equally uninterested in an actual relationship.”  
Sherlock squinted his eyes, Mycroft was nervous and because of that was he stalling, this didn't bode well. “So…?”  
“She agreed to allow me to choose someone, anyone as long as they were agreeable to the terms.”  
“So, I’m guessing by your earlier wordage you have already made your offer, and they accepted?”  
“Yes, they actually made a counter-offer, and I agreed.”  
“For Christ sake, Mycroft, just spit it out, who is it? Anthea?”  
“John Watson.”  
Sherlock froze, he couldn’t have heard his brother right.

“Sherlock! Are you home?” John bellowed up the stairs moments before he burst through the flat door. He could feel the tension in the room; he took a moment to assess the situation. Mycroft was standing there grasping his umbrella nervously, and Sherlock’s face was pale, and his eyes looked distant until they landed on him. “So, um, you’ve told him...about the um, the thing?” He asked Mycroft.  
“Yes.”  
John heard just the slightest hint of smugness in Mycroft's answer. John glared at Mycroft, squared his shoulders and gave Sherlock his full attention. "I was going to tell you, in fact, I told Mycroft to let me tell you."  
"You coddle him too much John. Sherlock, it's a good match, the only match I suppose. John is a patient man; he is already used to your odd hours and habits. He is a military man, and understands loyalty and honour."  
"I beg to differ," Sherlock grumbled under his voice.  
"Don't be like that Sherlock-"  
"John, let him have his moment."  
"Yes, John I suppose you should learn to take orders all over again and let others do the talking for you."  
"Sherlock-"  
"No, no, I get it. Mycroft can't be with the one he wants to be with so he chooses the one person he knows won't love him back, setting himself up for a failed marriage from the start, simply so he can tell mother he knew better than to try. Although, I had always pictured John marrying for love, not money."  
John was taken aback by Sherlock's tirade. He moved to stand by Mycroft, "What makes you think he is offering me money?"  
"Well, you don't love him, you can barely stomach him most days. What else might my brother offer you?"  
"A job. And Mycroft has agreed to stay open to the possibility of something developing between us."  
It was now Sherlock's turn to be surprised, "Possibility?" He scoffed, "I guess if anyone could love my brother it would be you, John. You are a saint."

Mycroft made an excuse and left shortly after, the tension in the room was even thicker than when John had first entered the flat. "Sherlock, you must know I wasn't trying to hurt you or impede our friendship. I figured this was the best solution for us all. I will get a job in the field I miss; I'll be keeping Mycroft out of your hair more, I'll run interference. Mycroft will get to make your mother happy, and you get to have your solitude again, I think you miss it sometimes. You won't have to worry about my portion of the rent because your brother will pay it as part of the stipulations of me marrying him. And to top it all off, we won't have to worry about Mycroft wanting to forbid our friendship if anything he will continue to encourage it."  
Sherlock stood up abruptly, "'Cuse me; I'm suddenly feeling very cross."  
Sherlock walked into his room and quietly shut his door. What was Mycroft playing at? There had to be more to this whole thing than his brother was letting on to.

John stared after Sherlock. He had expected Sherlock to be upset, maybe yell at Mycroft and accuse him of trying to break up their friendship, he had not expected the quiet intensity that Sherlock had displayed. It worried him. Sherlock had often referred to him as his; his blogger, his doctor, amongst other things. Could Sherlock have really meant it, believed John to be his in some form?

Over the next couple of months, Sherlock seemed to warm up to the idea of his best friend marrying his brother. He and John spent far more time together as they planned the coming wedding. Mycroft had given them an unlimited budget and had told Sherlock to plan it as if it was his own. The idea of planning the wedding had sickened him at first, and then he thought about planning the worse wedding in the history of weddings. But in the end, he wanted John to be happy.  
"If we are going to be using purple and cream as the base colours I think we should go with this arrangement here." John pointed to a picture that showed several different types of arrangements using the same colour scheme and theme.  
"Boring. And it's aubergine and mother of pearl. We should be bold! This one! This one here, bold aubergine coloured flowers, with the crochet tie and netting details."  
"Sherlock, your brother would never go for that. He is very understated."  
"He told me to help plan it as if I was the one getting married. Taking Mycroft out of the equation, which arrangement do you like better?"  
John looked down at the pictures again. Quite honestly Sherlock had a good eye and was much better at all of this planning and coordinating than he was. "Surprisingly Sherlock, I don't care, I trust your judgement."  
"Well, this might be a good time to suggest adding a bit of navy, it-" Sherlock paused turning to stare at John, "It brings out your eyes, makes them sparkle."  
John didn't know what to say to that, he was sure he was blushing. It almost sounded as Sherlock was flirting with him. He flipped a couple of pages and then pointed to another picture, this one had navy as the primary colour. "You mean like this, is this the colour you're suggesting?"  
Mycroft walked into his brother's flat without announcing his presence. They often left the door wide open and today was no different. John and Sherlock were haunched over a book; their shoulders brushed one another and their heads nearly touched. John pointed at something and looked up at Sherlock as he spoke. When Sherlock met his gaze, they stared at one another as if transfixed and unable to look away. Mycroft watched, waiting to see what would happen. John leaned in a little, so close Mycroft was sure his breath was ghosting over Sherlock's slightly parted lips. Just when he thought his brother might lean into John, he cleared his throat. They quickly moved apart. John greeted him at the door with a quick kiss on the lips. Mycroft closed his eyes and imagined it was Greg Lestrade. When he'd opened his eyes again, Sherlock was already walking away, heading to his room. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. As you know, I was in the area and figured I would just stop in and see how things were going. Is Sherlock behaving?"  
"Your brother never behaves, that's why I'm here."  
"Indeed."  
John and Mycroft sat down on the couch. "This is exhausting."  
"Exhausting? You aren't doing any of the planning."  
Mycroft waved a dismissive hand at John. " No, I meant this whole facade. I hate when my mother gets an idea and sinks her teeth into it."  
John gave Mycroft a sympathetic smile, placing a hand on his knee. "Were you thinking of Greg again?"  
"Of course I was."  
"Are you sure you don't want to ask him, you'd be much happier."  
"Heavens no. It will never work with Greg. Besides, he may not be interested."  
"You never know unless you put yourself out there."  
"I'm sure you're in a position to give relationship advice."  
"I learn from my mistakes so that I might offer you this advice."  
"It's not too late for you either, you know."  
John just smiled sadly and shook his head.  
"So the planning is going well then?"  
"Great actually! We were just trying to iron out some of the last details. I have to go pick up the rings tomorrow, and you'll be needing to go by Sky Garden and finish paying for the ceremony."  
"I'll pick up the rings, just forward me the info." Mycroft looked down the hall, checking on the whereabouts of his baby brother.  
"John, how has the past couple of weeks been with Sherlock, I know he can be rather moody."  
"As you know, he was mad at first, but he's warmed up quite a bit. It makes me sad when I think about not being here with him anymore. We have been a team for what feels like so long now. Now it's just so long. I'm gonna miss being around here and all the little things. The two of us arguing over experiments and body parts in the fridge. Emptying the bin and grabbing milk."  
"John,"  
"Hmm?"  
"Are you sure I'm the one you want to marry?"  
John seemed to shake himself, "What? As you said, it is an agreeable marriage. We aren't marrying for love or prestige."  
"That isn't what I asked you."  
John looked down at his watch. "Ah! Good Heavens, you're going to be late for your fitting. Thanks for stopping by beforehand."  
"Yes, you're right."Mycroft stood up and straightened his clothes. "John, I meant what I said the other day. If at any time you change your mind before the wedding just let me know and I will call the whole thing off."  
John patted Mycroft gently on the arm, "Thanks, but I agreed."  
"Very well, I shall see you and my dear brother for dinner."

Once Mycroft was off to his fitting Sherlock crept out of his room and back into the sitting room, leaning against the wall he asked, "He's gone then?"  
"He uh, had to get to his fitting. You know you didn't have to leave out."  
"I felt like I needed to give you two a moment of privacy, you, uh kissed, that's new."  
John gave a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his neck. "Uh yeah, only the second time if you can believe that. We figured it's a bloody wedding; we should at least kiss. So we figured we need to become accustomed to doing so."  
"That was not the enthusiastic kiss one typically sees at a wedding."  
John blushed, "Yeah, we agreed, no tongue. Plus, it's still kind of weird you know?"

Later that night Sherlock sat in his room on the bed with the lights out. He had backed out of dinner with John and his brother. Today he had been hit with a hard truth; he didn't want John to marry his brother or anyone. Sherlock wasn't even sure he could stand through the wedding. He didn't want to examine his feelings too closely, but he knew he wanted John to stay right here in the flat with him, and he didn't want anything to change. He had thought John was going to kiss him earlier, but instead, his brother walked in, and John had kissed him instead. Sherlock had wanted to walk over to the couple and pull them apart, maybe even scratch his brother's eyes out. He had recognised the emotion for what it was, jealousy. The past couple of months had been some of the best and worse for Sherlock, he and John seemed closer than ever. He'd not only realised but also accepted the fact that he was in love with John.  
There was a quiet knock at his bedroom door, glancing at the clock beside his bed he frowned, John should be at dinner with Mycroft. And Ms Hudson was out of town. "Come in."  
John entered Sherlock's room, it was dark except for the light that trickled in from the hallway. "Sherlock are you okay?"  
"You're supposed to be at dinner with my brother."  
"I was worried about you. Besides, Mycroft really wasn't up for an outing."  
"Don't worry about me, John, I can take care of myself."  
"I know, but I still worry. Would you like to watch some television with me and get some takeaway?"  
"No thank you, John, I am feeling a bit under the weather, if you'll excuse me."  
John watched as Sherlock lay down and pulled the blanket over him, openly dismissing him. Saddened by the dismissal, John closed Sherlock's door and went off to his own room.

  
The day was upon them. Sherlock stood in front of the altar with John, and Mike Stamford was next to him. The officiant smiled at everyone as they waited for Mycroft to be walked down the aisle.  
Sherlock looked down impatiently at his watch. Their father was to walk both John and Mycroft down the aisle, but instead, John had come and stood out by the alter stating that Mycroft had told him the plans had changed.  
A moment later Sherlock's father walked down the aisle alone and sat down next to his mother, who despite the lack of Mycroft's presence was still happily beaming. This wasn't looking good, but his mother didn't seem bothered. Sherlock shot a quick glance over to John, had this all been real he would've felt bad for his friend, but he was loath to say a small- okay, a big part of him was happy Mycroft had stood John up.  
Sadly many times during the planning of this wedding Sherlock had allowed himself to imagine it was he and John who was getting married. It was a bit of fanciful thinking, he'd thought it completely harmless; he now realised how wrong he had been. He couldn't stop his eyes from straying over to John in his military dress uniform, he was understatedly dashing as always. A slight smile playing on his lips like this wasn't some farce of what he really wanted, and could possibly have had. But Sherlock was a coward, and had never opened up to that degree with John, had never let on to the depth of his emotions for his friend. And now he would lose John forever. Oh, they'll remain friends at first, but as Mycroft and John's marriage became more real Sherlock knew their friendship would take a backseat. These thoughts were wrecking havoc on Sherlock's emotional state, he seldom let it be known that he even had an emotional state besides extreme indifference and annoyance, but he feared he was fast falling into a state of panic.  
"Sherlock, are you alright?"  
Sherlock blinked twice, realising John had come over to him, there was a gentle concern in his eyes. "Yes, quite, why do you ask? I should be the one asking you if you're okay. It looks as if you have been left at the altar."  
Still smiling John reached up wiping at Sherlock's face, "You're crying Sherlock."  
Horrified Sherlock turned his back to the small crowd and wiped furiously at his eyes. "It's just allergies, all these flowers you know?"  
Stepping closer, John placed a hand on Sherlock's back and rubbed. "There isn't a lot of flowers Sherlock. It's okay if you're emotional. It's supposed to be a happy occasion."  
Against his better judgement, Sherlock blurted out what he had been thinking this past couple of months. "Yes!" Sherlock whispered harshly, "In which you're supposed to marry the love of your life. That _isn't_ Mycroft!"  
John's breath froze in his lungs, what was Sherlock on about? If he wasn't happy about him marrying Mycroft, and he appeared to be downright against the ideal, what was he crying for? "If not Mycroft, then who Sherlock? I'm not getting any younger." John stared at Sherlock wishing the stubborn fool for once would give him something to go on. He knew what he hoped Sherlock meant by all this but did he dare hold on to that hope?  
"Me," Sherlock whispered, his voice cracking around the edges.  
It was whispered so low it was nearly impossible to hear, but hear it he did. John felt that single word roll through his body, electrifying every nerve ending. He wanted to shout for joy! He wanted to pull Sherlock into his arms and kiss him senseless. John could neither act nor respond because right then the wedding march began playing. He watched as Sherlock squared his shoulders and cleared his face of all the vulnerability he'd just shown.

Sherlock had lost his chance. He felt like he was dying inside. The officiant was speaking, something about doing the ceremony a little different. He absently wondered to himself on the whereabouts of his brother, how could they start the ceremony when he still did not see his brother?  
"We are gathered here today to witness the union between John Watson and Sherlock Holmes."  
Sherlock blinked several times and looked up to the Officiant, that was a mistake, how did he tell the man without messing up the wedding. He looked at John who was always much better at reading and dealing with social situations. John looked just as lost and confused as he felt.  
"These two men have saved each other from a lifetime of loneliness, they have been each other's shelter in the storm and anchor in the sea. The love they share is apparent to everyone but themselves. Sherlock, John, I know you have each prepared your own vows, unbeknownst to you. Do care to share them with the rest of us?"  
John looked at Sherlock and could see his brilliant detective was shutting down, panicking internally, unsure about the situation. He stepped closer, and it took everything in him to say his next words, "Sherlock, no doubt your brother set all of this up, and if you do not wish to go through with this- we don't- we don't have to. But I would be honoured beyond belief if you would have me."  
Sherlock looked into John's eyes, he felt John had laid himself bare, and he could see, really see his blogger loved him. He nodded his head slightly and when John gave him that brilliant smile of his he knew he had done the right thing.  
"Just as we practised okay?"  
Sherlock nodded and cleared his throat.  
John took Sherlock's hand's and started their shared vows.

 

 _**John: "I promise to encourage your compassion because that is what makes you unique and wonderful."** _  
_**Sherlock: "I promise to nurture your dreams because through them your soul shines."**_  
_**John: "I promise to help shoulder our challenges,"**_  
_**Sherlock: "For there is nothing, we cannot face if we stand together."**_  
_**John: "I promise to be your partner in all things,"**_  
_**Sherlock; "Not possessing you, but working with you as a part of the whole."**_  
And together they recited the end of their vows.  
_**"Lastly, I promise you perfect love and perfect trust, for one lifetime with you could never be enough.**_  
_**This is my sacred vow to you, my equal in all things."**_

 

"May we now have the rings.”  
Mike Stamford stepped forward with both rings in hand, passing one to Sherlock and one to John.  
"Bless these rings so that Sherlock and John may wear them with deep faith in each other. May they always live together in peace, love and abiding joy."  
John placed the ring he had on Sherlock's left hand, and Sherlock did the same for him. Sherlock noticed the ring that should have been for Mycroft was resized to fit his more slender finger. He and John had picked the rings out together. They were untraditional in design, silver and gold entwined to make a single band. It was a lot like them.  
"These rings have no beginning and no end. They set forth the eternal nature of real love. They will represent the love and trust that Sherlock and John promise to each other this day."  
Since you, Sherlock, and you John, have thus consented in holy matrimony and have witnessed the same before God and these friends, by the authority vested in me as an Officiant and the laws of this great country, I now pronounce you married. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate. You may seal your marriage with a kiss!"  
John turned to Sherlock, they had never kissed or shared any physically intimate moments before today, and their first kiss would be as a married couple. The gravity of this moment was not lost on him, and he could see panic still swimming in Sherlock's eyes. He placed a calming hand against Sherlock's cheek, he held eye contact as he pressed forward, pulling Sherlock into their first kiss. It wasn't a steamy hot kiss that would give the guest a glimpse into the honeymoon night. It was chaste and gentle, a mere pressing of the lips and yet it still took both their breaths away. John regrettably pulled away, searching Sherlock's face as he did.  
"It is with great honour I present to you for the first time as a married couple Sherlock Holmes-Watson and John Watson-Holmes!"  
Sherlock was startled as everyone cheered and clapped. He gave John a tentative smile, they were married. How had this happened? Sherlock thought over the past few months, went over the guest list in his head, they were people that were in his circle, and John's not Mycroft's. That sneaky bastard. Smiling Sherlock took John's hand and turned to the Officiant, "Good one brother, I owe you."  
"Brother? I don't understand. Do you have more than-" John stopped speaking midsentence as he saw the Officiant pull off his black wig and fake moustache. "Son of a-"  
"Careful John, my mother is present."  
"Sorry, sorry. Mycroft?"  
"I am sorry John, I played you both right from the start, it was necessary for you both to believe that I really intended to marry you John. It was the only way you two would get your act together and realise you are crazy about one another."  
"You cock! You could have told me the plan."  
"No John, you would have given it away."  
"Thank you, Mycroft. I owe you for this eye-opening experience. At the start of all this, you stated you were the elder brother and therefore had to set an example, you were right, I have learned so much from you during all of this. I do believe I saw Gavin Lestrade over by Mummy if you would excuse me."  
Sherlock made a beeline for Lestrade, ignoring his brother calling his name as he chased after him.


End file.
